Filament mounting machine



March 3, 1931. c. G. BLOM FILAMENT MOUNTING .MACHINE Filed July 2, 1927 5 Sheets-Sheet l ITM/@WOP Cl'wfisbaan G. 13| ovm. by M Hiss Att@ March 3, 1931. c. G. BLOM FILAMENT MOUNTING MACHINE Filed July 2, 1927 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 March 3, 1931. Q C;- BLOM 1,795,195

FILAMENT MOUNTING MACHINE Filed July 2. 1927 3 SheetS-Sheet 5 lll/lll mllllll 1| llllllllllll VI//A l' Il I 1'\\/e1'1to1- Christiaan G. Blom, Joy

His Attorney.

' Patented Mar. 3, 1931 UNITED STATES PflueN'rA OFFICE CHRISTIAAN G. BLOM, OF EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS, ASSIGNOR TO GENERAL ELEC- TRIO COMPANY, A CORPORATION F NEW YORK FILAMENT MOUNTING MACHINE Application lle July 2, 1927, Serial No. 203,149, and in the Netherlands July 10, 1926.

This invention relates to a machine for "mechanically mounting str. ight or coiled filaments in the hooks or eyes of the anchors of electrical incandescent lamps or similar apparatus.

The principal object of the invention is to automatically mount a filament in the filament supports,andto thisend a machine is provided with a filament feeding device for feeding the straight or coiled filament into place, and with a holder for the anchors or filamentsupports, the Afilament feeding device and the anchor holder being 'relatively movable to change their relative positions and thereby wind the filament through each of the anchor eyes in succession. Either the filament feedin device or the filament supports may be xed vwhile the other moves with reference to it. The functions of these parts may be divided, and according to the invention, the machine may give a windingmotion to the filament by means of the filament feeding device, while the holder for the anchor or filament supports is being moved in such a way that each of the anchor eyes is brought in succession into the proper position with reference to the filament feeding device.

lt is to be understood that anchors with eyes are anchors which consist of a straight and. curved part. The curved part is preferably a coil having a single turn of large pitch forming a loop or eye with widely separated convolutions so that it is open on one side in such a way that the eye is accessible to the filament through this opening, and therefore, the filament may be placed in the eye Vaccording to a predetermined plan.

According to the invention, the filament is moved by the filament feeding device in the plane in which ,the anchor eye is accessible. A Winding movement is then obtained yby moving the filament in said plane in a circular orelliptical path. Various constructions" may be used to secure this result.

In accordance with one form of the invention, a horizontal oscillatin arm is provided, which not only oscillates a out a centre, but also moves up and down at the .same time. The tip or point of the arm thus follows a the oscillating arm parallel to the plane between adjacent convolutions-of the anchor eye and also in a plane perpendicular to that plane in whichthis eye is accessible, it is found that the filament can be wound into the anchor eye during the movement of the oscillating arm.

In the case of gas filled incandescent lamps, for which this machine is very suitable, the filament supports will usually be located in a horizontal plane, while the single turn anchor eyes have all been wound in the same direction. However, there are also types of lamps in which the filament supports are not located in a single plane and the eyes are wound in different directions. -The machine can also be used for this kind of lamp, because the oscillating'arm may be given motions inl opposite4 directions in order to allow the wind ing of the filament through anchor eyes wound in opposite directions.

The invention will be explained more in detail .with a reference to the attached drawings, in which Figure 1 is a side view in perspective of essential parts of one form of machinegonstruction inaccordance with the invention.

`Figure 2 is a plan view of a part of the machine shown in Figure 1.

Figures 3 and 4 are respectively a diagram and a perspective view to show the path followed by the filament in winding it through anchor eyes which are all wound in the same direction. A

Figures 5 and 6 are respectively a diagram and a perspective view to show the path followed by the filament when being wound on filament supports which are provided with eyeis wound alternately in'opposite directions an Figure 7 is a longitudinal section showing on a `shaft 25 which can be raised and low- In Figure 1 is shown a mount holder H in which may be placed a lamp mount of the usual construction comprising a stem tube or flare 10, leads ll'and 12, anchors or filament supports 13, and an-arbor 14. The lmount holder is so constructed that the mount is held with the end of its arbor 14 touching a disc 15 rigidly mounted on a shaft 16 so as to rest on a' disc 17 mounted on a tubular shaft through which the shaft 16 extends and in which the shaft 16 is rotatably j ournaled. A conical sleeve cam'18 slidable on the tubular shaft 20 may be shifted up and down by a le r 19 to operate clamping aws for clampinYgethe hooks of the leads on the ends of the filament. The mechanism just described constitutes the principal parts of the mount holder.V y

AlilamentfeedingmechanismF for feeding the filament to the mount holder is mounted adjacent to, but independent of this mount holder. The filament feeding mechanism comprises a filament guide or tube 21 provided with a hopper or funnel 22 for receiving the filament and a tip 23 for discharging the filament, l the tube 21 being mounted on the end of an oscillating arm 24 which is j oscillated and also raised and lowered by an actuating mechanism such as shown in the drawing. The oscillating arm 24 is mounted ered, as it is movable lengthwise in its journals 26 and 27 on the pedestal 28. The lower end of the shaft rests on one end of a lever 29 pivoted on a pivot 30 on the pedestal 28. The other end of the lever 29 has a cam roller 31, which follows the edge of a cam 32. As this edge cam 32 rotates the lever 29 is moved Y up and down, and consequently the shaft 25 is raised and lowered. The shaft 25 is rocked or oscillated by means of a lever 33 splined to the shaft and having on its end a cam roller 34'whi'ch is actuated by a cam 35 having on its edge lobes 36 for oscillating the tip 23 during the winding of the filament into the eyes and a lobe 37 for swinging vthel tip back out of the Way of parts of the holder I-I afterl the winding of the filament is finished. The lever* 33 is splined on the shaft 25 by a slot 38 in the hub of the lever 33, in which a pin 39 on the shaft 25 fits loosely, so that as thel l shaft 25 movesup and down its lengthwise movement will not affect the rocking or oscillating motion imparted to it by the lever 33.

' 35 a combined oscillating and vertical mo'- tion. The motions may be such that the tip 23 of the filament guide or tube 21 follows a circular or elliptical path, located on the surface of the cylinder which is described by theV tip 23 when rotating around the shaft 25 as a center, but if the oscillating motion of the arm 24 is very small as compared with the lengthwise movement of the shaft 25 this tip 23 has a movement which is practically in a vertical plane.

The mount holder H may be made in various forms, but for purposes of illustration I have shown a form comprising a horizontal flat ring 41 rotatably mounted concentric with the discs 15 and 17, and having a vertical port 42 provided at the upper end with resilient stem clamping jaws 43 for gripping the stem tube 10 of the mount.

As already stated, a funnel 22 is connected to the tube 21 which guides the filament when it is dropped into the tube 21. The filament will slide vby gravity through the bore of the tube 21 and its end will appear at the tip 23. In the position of the parts indicated in Fig: 1 the end of the coiled filament will be delivered just opposite the bent end or hook of the leading-in wire 12 and will be in the hook. In order to prevent the filament sliding throughV the hook too far a stop 44 is mounted on the disc 15 which is rigidly connected to the shaft 16 and will thus be rotated by the rotation of this shaft. In case the filament moves too far out of the tip 23 it is pushed back into the tube 21 such a distance that its end will be located in the bent end or hook of the lead 12 as the stop 44 moves toward the hook on the lead. A similar stop 45 is positioned on the edge of the disc 15 to cooperate with the hook of lead 11.

After the end of the filament is positioned in the hook of the lead 12 it is clamped to the lead by the closing of the hook as the conical cam 18 rises and closes the clamping jaw 46,

,thereby closing the hook firmly on the end of the filament. The clamping jaw 46 is pivgted on the disc 17 by a pivot 47, and is opened s the cam 18 is lowered by a spring 48 which holds it against the cam 18. After one end' of the filament has thus been rigidly connected` to the lead 12 the holder H and both discs 15 and 17 are rotated simultaneously in the' direction of the arrow, and at the same time the cams 32 and 35 are brought into raction to cause the mouthpiece 23 of the tube 21 to follow the path which has already been described. The result of this movement of the mouthpiece 23 during the rotation of the discs 15 and 17 is that the filament is placed in the eyes of the filament supports 13. After this has been done, the `other end of the filament comes out of the tip 23 as the lead 11" ap- .proaches the tip, andthe end of the filament falls into place in the hook on the end of the lead 11. The disc 15 can now be moved slightly to bring the stop 45 against the side of the hook, thereby insuring that the end o f the filament is in proper position, and then the clamping jaw 49, which is similar to the llf) clamping jaw 46, is closed by a further'rise of the sleeve cam 18, and'the mounting of the filament is completed. The ltip 23 is swung by the lobe 37 of the cam 35 out of the way of the post 42 of the holder I-I, and the parts come to rest in the position of Fig. 1, with the clamping jaws 46 and 49 open, so that the mount can be lifted out of the machine.

As appears from Fig. 3, it is necessary in order to wind the filament through an anchor eye to move it in the plane in which the points o and lie and in which this anchor eye is accessible. As the particular typeof anchor eye shown is a coil of one turn of large pitch so that its overlapping parallel parts are separated far enough to permit entry of the filament, ythis plane will be located perpendicularly to the center-line or axis about which the anchor wire is coiled to form the eye and will be between those overlapping or adjacent parts of the single turn or eye which partly parallel each other.

Although in practice the filament feeding mechanism as a whole is stationary and the mount holder rotates to carry the anchor eyes one afterthe other into operative relation to the mechanism, the eect would be the same if the mount were stationary and the filament feeding mechanism moved around the mount, and for convenience of explanat-ion it is assumed in Figs. 3 to 6 that the filament feeding mechanism gives the filament as it issues from the tube 21 not only a motion along a closed curve due to the oscillating and vertical movements of the tip 23,

butv also a motionof translation around the filament supports which for the purpose of explanation are assumed to bestationa-ry. If it is assumed that the tip 23 of the filament feeding mechanism imparts to the filament only an exactly rectangular motion the spots where the filament guiding tip 23' of this mechanism moves perpendicularly upwards being indicated by a cross, and the spots where it moves perpendicularly downwards being indicated by a circle, then the drawing will make it clear how the windingof the filament into place in the eyes is accomplished. In these figures the filament supports marked 50 correspond to tliosemarked 13 in Fig. 1, While those supports marked 51 and 52 are mounted in the arbor I14 of the mount, but differ slightly from those marked 13. On the assumption that has been made as to these figures, the tip 23 of the tube 21' Will move along a line somewhat below the filament support 50 until it arrives at thlewposition 53; then the shaft 25 will move upwards, moving the tip 23 vertically upwards;

then the oscillating lever 24 rotates through the angle necessary to move the tip 23 horizontally to the position 54; then the shaft 25 moves downward, moving the tip 23 .-vertically downwards, after which the movement of the feeding mechanism carries the tip 23 to a position which pulls the filament into place in the eye of the filament support 51..

The path of the tip 23 in space and in perspective is shown by the full line A in Fig. 4, and is also 4shown diagrammatically in Fig. 3, in which the line a is dotted, the projection of that path being shown by the broken line a in Fig. 3. As shown in Fig. 2, the axis about which the oscillating arm 24 oscillates is in a plane which contains the axis of the anchor eye, and which is approximately perpendicular to the plane of the eye. The plane of the anchor eyes is approximately perpendicular to the plane in which the points o and m of Fig. 3 are located, and is the plane in which the eye is the most accessible.

In Figs. 5 and 6 the filament supports 51 and 52 have eyes which are coiled alternately in opposite directions, the eye of support 51 being coiled to the right opposite to the eye of support 50 in Fig. 3, while the eye of support 52 iscoiled to the left, the same as the eye of support 50. In this case care must v, be taken that the filament feeding mechanism changes the direction of the movement of the tip 23 so as to correspond to the direction of the coiling of these anchor eyes, which can easily be done by shaping the cams32 and 35.

The path followed by the tip 23 when winding the filament into filament supports, the eyes of which are alternately coiled in opposite directions, so that the direction of coiling of each eye is the reverse 'of that of the immediately adjacent eyes, is shown in perspective by the full line B in Fig. 6, and d1- agrammatically in Fig. 5, in which the line B is dotted, the projection of the path of the tip 23 being shown by the dotted line b.

The filament mounting mechanism above described may be actuated by many different forms of actuating mechanism for moving the parts in the proper sequence, but merely for purposes of illustration there is shown 1n Fig. 7, one form of actuating mechamsm which may be used. This figure is a longitudinal section through the machine taken 1n the plane of the shaft 20 and substantially perpendicular to thevplane of the paper 1n Fig. 1, looking in a direction away from the Yfilament feeding mechanism F so that this in Fig. 7 the various parts of the actuating mechanism, the filament feeding mechanism,

and the mount `holder are all mounted on a l'frame 55, on the top of whiclr is a pedestal 56 having an annular' bearing 57 concentric with the shafts 16 and 20 and constructed to provide a bearing for the ring 41 of the mount holder I-I. The mount holder is rotated in step with and at the same speed as the discs 15 and 17 through a countershaft 58 havin n the upper end a pinion in meshl with teem on the rim of the 'ring 41 and driven from the lower end by a bevel gear 59 on a drive shaft 60. The tubular shaft 20 is also driven from this drive shaft 60 through bevel gearing 61 so that the shaft 20 and the ring 4l rotate at the, same speed and are always in the same relation.`

The clamping'jaws 46 and 49 and the adjacent parts of the filament mounting mechanism are controlled by an actuating mechanism on the frame 55 and comprising a gear 62 mounted on a shaft 63 and driving the sleeve cam 18 through a driving cam 64 which rotates with the gear 62. The sleeve cam 18 is actuated from the driving cam 64 throughv a tappet rod 65 which is connected to the lever 19 and is normally held against the rim of the driving cam by a spring 66, which also tends to move the sleeve. cam 18 downward.

The disc 15 is rocked through a slight angle to position the stops 44 and 45- against the leads of the mount by means of a positioning cam 67 driven from the gear 62 and provided with a follower 68 pivoted at one endon the frame 55 and connected to a link 69 to a crank 70ion the lower end of the shaft 16. The positioning cam 67 is provided with a lobe and a recess so placed that at the proper timein the operation of the machine the disc 15 is rocked to one direction to bring the stop 44 against one lead and is subsequently rocked in the opposite direction to bring the stop 45 against the hook of the other lead.

The driving shaft 60 is driven through a mechanism so-constructed that the shaft will Y make one revolution Vand then stop. Various forms of mechanism for producing this kind of motion may be used, but the particular clutch mechanism shown in' .the drawing comprises a loose pulley 71 mounted on the end of the drive shaft and provided with a clutch jaw 72. Cooperating with vthis clutch jaw is a clutch'mernber 73 splined on the provided with a/ sliding pin 77 so positioned that its inner end will engage one arn of the bell crank 75 as the drive shaft 60 completes its revolution and will in that manner disengage -the clutch. To start the machine a trigger 78 movesthe pin 7 7 and releases the bell crank 75, whereuponthe clutch will automatically engage, and the drive sha'ftwill,

l make one revolution, causing the parts of the filament mounting mechanism to operate. as above described and tol place the filament in the eyes of the filament supports.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is

1. In a machine of thev character described,

guide through which a filamentis fed'endwise, and actuating means operative to move the delivery end of said guide transverse to a radius of said circle and inside said circle, thence radially of said circle over the open side of said eye in a plane between adjacent convolutions of said eye, and thence in the direction of the axis of said eye to cause said filament feeding device to place in the eye on said anchor the filament fed from said guide, and common driving means for rotating said holder and actuating said filament feeding guide in synchronism.

2. `In a\machine of the character described,

'the combination of a mount holder for holding a mount comprising a hub and radially projecting anchors with their free ends arranged in a circle about the axis of said hub as a center and each coiled at its free end into an eye of which the axis is substantially tanf gential to said circle and the convolutions are widely separated to leave the eye open on one side, a movable filament feeding guide through which a filament is fed endwise, driving means for producingrelative movement of said holder and of said filament feeding guide to position each of said anchors in succession in operative relation to said filament feeding guide, and actuating means operated by said driving means to move the delivery end of said guide across the positioned anchor and across the axis of said eye in the plane between adjacentconvolutions of said eye and in a direction alvongthe convolution toward its free end to cause said filament feeding guide to place in said eye on 'said anchor the lament fedfroni said guide.

3. In a machine of the character described, the combination of a mount holder for hold# ing a mount comprising a hub and radially projecting anchors with their free ends arranged in a circle about the axis of said hub as a center and each coiled at its free end into a single turn coiled eye of which the axis is substantially tangential to said circle and the convolutions are widely separated to leave the eye open on one side, of a movable lilamenb feeding guide through which a lament is fed endwiserdriving means for producing relative 'movement' of said holder and of sai filament feeding guide to position each of said anchors in succession in operative relation to said filament feeding guide,and actuating means operated by said driving means to move the delivery end of said guide across the positioned anchor, then across the axis of said eye in the plane between adjacent convolutions of said eye and in a direction hub as a center and each coiled at its free end into an eye of which the axis is substantially tangential to said circle and the convolutions are widely separated to leave the eye open on one side, a filament feeding mechanism comprising an oscillatable arm mounted for bodily movement alo its axis of oscillation, a tubular lament gulie mounted on the free' end of said arm, driving means for producing relative movement of said holder and of said tubular lament guide to position each of said anchors in succession in operative relation to said filament guide, and actuating means 0perated by said driving means to move the delivery end of said guide across the positioned anchor and across the axis of said eye in the plane between adjacent convolutions of said eye and in a direction along the convolution toward its free end to cause said filament feeding guide to place in said eye on said anchor the filament fed from said guide.

5. In a machine of the character described, the combination of amount holder for holding a mount comprising a hub and radially projecting anchors with their free ends arranged in a circle about the axis of said hub as a center and each coiled at its free end into an eye of which the axis is substantially tangential to said circle and the convolutions are widely separated to leave the eye open 'on one side, a filament feeding mechanism comprising an arm mounted to oscillate about an axis in a plane parallel to the plane between adjacent convolutions of theeye on the positioned anchor and also in a plane perpendicular to said plane between adjacent convolutions of said eye, a tubular iilament guide mounted on the free end of said arm, driving means for producing relative movement of said holder and of said lament feedingguide to position each of said anchors in succession in operative relation to said lament feeding guide, and actuating means operated by said driving means to move the delivery end of said guide across the positioned anchorl and across the axis of said eye in the plane between adjacent convolutions of said eye and in a direction along the convolutions toward its free end to cause said filament feeding guide to place in said eye on said anchor the filament fed from said guide. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 15th day of June, 1927.'

CHRISTIAAN G. BLOM. Y

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